Baltic Sea, German Ostsee, Swedish Östersjön, Russian Baltiyskoye More, Finnish Itämeri, Polish Morze Bałtyckie,
arm of the North Atlantic Ocean, extending northward from the latitude of southern Denmark almost to the Arctic Circle and separating the Scandinavian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe. The largest expanse of brackish water in the world, the semienclosed and relatively shallow Baltic Sea is of great interest to scientists, while to historians it represents the economic core of the Hanseatic League, the great medieval trading group of northern European ports. The many names for the sea ... (100 of 3,341 words)